Wednesday, August 26, 2009

When Your Children Shall Ask


How precious are our children and our grandchildren !!!
And how we treasure the memories we build over the years.

Do you know that it is pleasing to God when we do ?

When the Israelites crossed the Jordon they were commanded to pile up twelve stones for one reason! A memory trigger !
In Joshua 4:21 God's people were told that when in the future their children would pass by these stones and ask "What are these stones?", they were to tell them the stories of how God had brought them through the Jordon.


Piling up rocks wherever we go is rather impractical in our modern times... but we still build memories with our cameras!
Here in this post I am sharing some of my 'memory stones' that I gathered on our trip to the Pacific Rim National Park in Tofino, Vancouver Island. (I'm sorry the following photos are not in sequential order.... but Blogger does not allow me to move them around without you losing the ability to click on them to enlarge them)

Taken shortly after we left Horseshow Bay heading for Nanaimo.

This house was perched on the rocky cliff overlooking the ocean a short beach walk from where we stayed. I stood looking at the house thinking I would like to live there. Today I heard the house is for sale, for a paltry sum of over 8 million dollars.


We so enjoyed exploring the caves and natural rock tunnels on the rocky shore of the beach that lay a few meters from our villa windows.


On the drive to Long Beach we passed beautiful water pools carved out of solid rock. Daring young people were jumping off the rocks into these pools.



Rocky cliffs that could be explored when the tide was out, caves that are filled with water when the tide is in.




Relaxing in our luxurious villa at Pacific Sands Resort. If you ever go to Tofino I highly recommend this family owned resort right on a private beach.



I love the waves coming in and crashing up against the rocks.


How interesting was the chevron pattern the receding waves made in the sand.


A sea gull proudly looking out to sea!


My daughter and son-in-love on an evening stroll, taken from our window.


My granddaughters and I skipping with a sea onion 'rope' ... Well, Ok.. I wasn't skipping, just holding the sea onion end. smile.


Apparently there was some kind of surfing meets or something going on while we were there. There were so many surfers, as the one in the above photo, surfing from early morning until after dark.


We never tired of sounds and movement of the ocean waves. Those are my grandgirls feet.







Lots of colorful starfish , aneomes , barnacles and clams in their shells revealed when the tide was out.


Beautiful in the evening dusk. View from our living room window.


Also from our Villa window but with the sun shining on the waves.


Shadows/reflections in the wet sand .


This is a tree in the Cathedral Grove park. The standing tree is 76 meters tall, 9 meters in circumference and was 300 years old when Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.


After waiting over 4 hours at Departure Bay in Nanaimo, we finally boarded the new Coastal Renaissance ferry on our way home. The sunset was beautiful.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just requested it be our next vacation! lol THX for the lovely pictures. I can't wait to go there!!!

Tammie said...

Your world is absolutely breath taking! It feels a little overwhelming to see how very beautiful God's gifts to us are, don't you think?

Beth said...

How Beautiful...just like postcards! My hubby and I took our honeymoon to Jonesport, Maine two years ago. It was beautiful as well. It is a little fishing village and we went just before tourist season. The people were so sweet once you got to know them. One fisherman even went out and got us lobster to give to us as our wedding present!
We stayed in a tiny cabin on the cliff and enjoyed how beautiful it all was.
It looks as if you had a lovely vacation! So happy for you!
Beth

Beth said...

Oh...by the way, I forgot to tell you that I love the idea of the Israelites stacking up stones to remember what God had done for them. I have a "praise notebook" that I started when I was a single mom with 5 kids. Now that I have a blended family, I would like to find some pretty stones and have each of the kids still at home write something that God has done for him or her in marker on one stone and then maybe at Thanksgiving we can put them on the mantle in a stack...these will have to be small rocks, of course!! But it's the idea that I want to get across to them...maybe we can leave them there for a time and then write some more. We can put them in our flower garden when we are finished each time. I have to talk to my hubby about it but this is something I've been thinking about for a while.
Thanks for the blog! Good Job!

Betty W said...

What gorgeous scenery and awesome pictures! I would love to go there sometime.

Elsie said...

Your photos are gorgeous! They show beautiful scenery and precious times with family. I love the idea of "memory stones".

Thoughts on Life and Millinery. said...

I feel much cooler and refreshed now...and almost feel like I need to rinse sand off my toes too! Thanks for the "come along with us" pictures!

Vicki said...

Absolutely beautiful, Julie! I love the colors and the sea critters in the small pools of water, but my favorite picture is the one of your granddaughter perfectly reflected in the wet sand, with her shadow behind her.

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

What wonderful photos and wonderful memories Julie. Wow, I don't think I've never seen so many starfish in one place! And I've seen lots of beaches and low tides in my time.

Anneliese said...

Beautiful photos, Julie! I like the memory stone idea too!

Judy said...

What beautiful photos...of an amazing part of our province...and what great memories were made! How nice to meet your family as well.

James Janzen said...

Loved the pic's!! Looks like you had a GREAT relaxing time. I'm a little envious. I miss not being able to go to Tofino for the day. Maybe next time i'm at the coast we can go for a few hours. I would like that.

Lovella ♥ said...

Shoot. ..how I did I miss this one? I'm late coming to the show ..
I love this post Julie.
The pictures of your memory building time are wonderful .. .I think we'll have to talk details about your villa. I'd love to take our kids here too.

Brenda@CoffeeTeaBooks said...

I came over at the suggestion of my blog friend, Tammie. I immediately added you to my Google subscriptions. :)

Betty said...

Loved your photos Julie..precious memory building!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mom - for a beautiful tribute to our time in Tofino.

Sonny-Boy :)